The disclosed invention relates to the field of information recording disk handling apparatus, and in particular to apparatus for the centering and clamping of optical information recording disks in and information storage device having interchangeable media capabilities.
As the need for storage of information has increased, the ability to store information ever more densely on a recording media has also increased. In response, data has been recorded on magnetic and optical disks at ever increasing densities. However, in devices not having removable or interchangeable media, once the device's storage capabilities have been reached, no additional information may be recorded without, in the case of magnetic media, deleting prior recorded data. Thus for additional data to be recorded, additional devices have been necessary.
To address this problem, there have been devices developed which have interchangeable media. In magnetic recording devices having interchangeable media, the entire magnetic head disk-pack is changed. With disk-packs, the entire head includes the disks, the read/write heads and the actuators. Interchanging these disk-packs has been expensive, for exchange of a recording disk requires purchase of the entire disk-pack and the expensive elements therein.
To avoid the expense of completely changing the entire head assembly, movement has been made toward having devices wherein only the disk itself is removed. This significantly reduces the cost of adding additional storage capacities. Removable disks have worked well with low density low storage system, such as the magnetic floppy disks used with personal computers. However, for high density high storage applications, such as with optical disk storage systems, and with the minute dimensions involved with achieving high density storage, accurate centering of the disk to the device spindle is essential. Additionally, this precise centering must be repeatable. And further, once the device is centered, it must be securely clamped to the device spindle. In particular, the need for precise centering and secure clamping often are at cross purposes for the disk must remain precisely centered after the disk is clamped to the device spindle. Accordingly, the centering and clamping of the disk to the device spindle has presented particular problems. The disclosed invention addresses these problems. In particular, it provides a means for first centering the disk relative to the device spindle and thereafter clamping it securely in place for device rotation.
It is an object of the disclosed invention to provide a means for precisely centering an optical disk on the spindle of an optical information storage device.
It is another object of the disclosed invention to provide a means for the repeatable centering of an optical disk on an optical information storage device spindle.
It is still yet another object of the disclosed invention to provide means for selectively clamping the optical disk to the optical information storage device spindle.